The final game of the 2023 Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament was a landmark occasion in the history of women’s basketball. Yet, it was potentially overshadowed by public outcry with racism and sexism at the core.
The National Championship game featured the LSU Tigers and The Iowa Hawkeyes in the most-watched women’s college basketball game of all time. The contest generated a peak viewership of 12.6 million and an average of 9.9 million screens.
The massive game featured a talented LSU team led by junior Angel Reese, a unanimous First-Team All-American, First-Team All-SEC, and First-Team All-SEC Defensive Team. The forward had been on a tear; before the championship game, she averaged 22.5 points and 15 rebounds per contest in the national tournament.
However, the main draw to this game was the Hawkeyes and superstar Caitlin Clark. The junior pg was the Wooden Award winner — the award given to the most outstanding basketball player in the nation — as well as THREE other Player of the Year awards. She was also a unanimous AP First-Team All-American.
In the championship game, both Reese and Clark continued to make history.
Clark scored 31 in the final, making her tournament total 191 points. That’s the most points scored throughout a national tournament by any player, man or woman, in NCAA Tournament history.
Ultimately, Reese won the most important award, the National title. The Tigers defeated the Hawkeyes 102-85 — another tournament record — to win their first national championship in school history. Reese put up 15 and 10 to give her record-breaking 34th double-double on the year and encapsulated a Final-Four Most Outstanding Player award win.
The stars came to play, and it was an entertaining game. So why is it, that almost a week later, the part of the game discussed is the trash talk between Reese and Clark.
One of the things reasons Clark’s run riveted America was because we saw a woman doing things we don’t even see men do on the court. 30pt triple-doubles, shooting stepback threes from 35 feet, single-handedly carrying a below-average program to the national championship. But what also made it so special was her trash-talking. She isn’t scared to celebrate or go at other opponents if they speak first. ESPN made a short documentary on Clark called “The Queen of the Clapback.” America understood what it was watching. A potential new superstar at the forefront of the evolving women’s game, and it appreciated it.
But towards the end of the game, America stopped being so fond of trash-talking women hoopers.
During the waning seconds of the fourth quarter, Reese repeatedly faced Clark and did the “you can’t see me” gesture — a sort of trademark for Clark this tournament — and would point to her ring finger to signify her coming championship. As Clark started to walk off the floor, Reese seemed to follow Clark, repeatedly doing the two taunts, trying to get her attention.
The reaction of social media could only be described as an onslaught of outrage towards Reese. Her actions were condemned as ‘classless’ and ‘unsportsmanlike’ by many on social media. Even I believed, her following Clark around was a bit over the top, and felt she should celebrate with her team and win with class.
However, the outrage toward Reese is more than just due to her taunts at the end of the championship game.
Reese has a history of trash-talking in games. She’s confident. She’s boisterous. You could even call her cocky. Isn’t that what we see in all the great athletes? A level of confidence that they exude, regardless of who is in front of them? That’s what separates superstars from the stars, isn’t it?
Angel Reese is unapologetic about who she is. She reps her hometown of Baltimore and the south where she goes to school. She uses slang. She wears extensions and long eyelashes. She listens, dances, and quotes rap music on the national stage.
“I don’t fit in the box you put me in,” said Reese. I’m too hood. I’m too ghetto. This is for the girls that look like me”.
She unapologetically black, and she doesn’t care what people think or who is watching.
Historically, women are not ‘supposed to’ act out or be cocky. They are ‘supposed to’ act with ‘class’ — there’s that word again — and be respectful at all times. Women in sports aren’t ‘supposed to’ talk trash and taunt their opponents. But it is this sexist and antiquated thinking that holds back women’s sports.
Clark’s dominant performances and trash-talking breaks the traditional mold of what a woman athlete is supposed to be. It’s how she got called by many, ‘Women’s College Basketball’s Larry Bird’.
But Larry Bird, a great college player, was constantly juxtaposed with another great player Magic Johnson. The differences in the discourse about the players went beyond the floor. It was about who they represented, where they were from, how they acted. The ‘pride’ of two races. It was a black-and-white thing, no matter who wanted to deny it. And we are seeing the same thing play out with the Reese and Clark debacle.
Why is Clark compared to Larry Bird, but Reese is a “thug”. Why are professional sportscasters like Keith Olbermann calling Reese, a 20-year-old, “A f**king idiot” for her actions? Why is the First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden, offering the Hawkeyes — the majority white, LOSING team — a trip to the White House alongside the WINNING, majority black, Tigers? Absolutely unprecedented.
Clark believes Reese did nothing wrong, saying, “I don’t think Angel should be criticized at all.” So again, why is there a national crisis about this?
We know why. Women, as it is, are denigrated by society when they show emotion or confidence in the sports world. That is cranked up times 10 when they are a black woman. Reese, à la Sha’Carri Richardson, is and has been receiving pushback for who she is, how she presents herself as a confident black woman, and as dominant athlete who has every right to talk whatever trash she wants.
Clark and Reese will forever be stamped for their impact in growing the game of basketball and bringing eyes to women’s sports. They are two great players and two future top WNBA draft picks. We may even be blessed with a rematch in the tournament next year.
Let’s just hope next time around, we can appreciate two amazing women, their accomplishments and enjoy the next generation of women’s basketball.